Palestinians accused Israel on Saturday of not carrying out a promised easing
of its military grip on the West Bank and Gaza for a presidential election to
pick Yasser Arafat's successor.

Israel denied the allegations, saying it had relaxed restrictions on movement
in the occupied territories.

A Palestinian boy
hangs election posters of presidential candidate Mahmoud Abbas and the
late Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Hebron January 8, 2005.
[Reuters]

On the eve of the vote,
Palestinian officials announced a parliamentary election would be held on July
17 to complete what they hope will be a smooth transition toward democratic
reform and peacemaking with Israel after Arafat's death in November.

As international election experts fanned out to monitor the ballot, Israeli
soldiers continued to inspect the identity cards and packages of Palestinians
waiting in line at checkpoints at the entrances to West Bank cities, witnesses
said.

"The Palestinians and their cars are being checked at the roadblocks. This is
not what we call easing of restrictions," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb
Erekat said ahead of Sunday's vote, which Mahmoud Abbas, an advocate of
non-violence in a struggle for statehood, was expected to win by a landslide.

Hanna Nasir, chairman of the Palestinian Central Election Commission, said
international monitors were urged to ensure Israel relaxed military restrictions
in occupied territories.

Israeli security sources rejected Erekat's accusations, saying many temporary
checkpoints and barricades had been removed and procedures at larger permanent
checkpoints outside cities and at major road junctions significantly eased.

"Major checkpoints are still in place, but there was never an intent to
remove them. It's obvious they must stay in place for security reasons.
Terrorist threats still have to be dealt with," said an army spokesman.

To Palestinians, the checkpoints are detested symbols of occupation. Israel
says they stop suicide bombers.

CURFEW HOLDS UP BALLOT DELIVERY

Israeli officials acknowledged only one obstruction -- around several
villages outside Nablus where troops imposed a curfew in a hunt for militants
who killed an off-duty soldier and wounded three in the northern West Bank on
Friday.

The curfews initially prevented deliveries of ballot papers there, but the
restrictions were later lifted and monitors said all election materials were
distributed.

An Israeli border
guard checks the ID of a Palestinian man at the Salem checkpoint in Izmut
north of the West Bank city of
Nablus.[AFP]

Israeli officials said the army
was also adhering to a commitment to keep troops out of West Bank cities --
where they often mount raids in search of militants -- to help Palestinians hold
their first presidential election since 1996.

"We have not received reports from observers in the field about problems at
checkpoints. That does not mean there are no problems," said a spokeswoman for
European Union monitors. "I can't tell you (yet) that there have been no
problems."

Earlier, the Nablus-area attack drew an Israeli threat to rescind its pledge
of no military operations.

"We (promised) to ease off for 72 hours under agreement with the
Palestinians, so that their security forces would take over responsibilities for
the relevant areas," a senior Israeli security source said. "If they fail to
make good on that, we will have no choice but to act."

Political sources said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, one of the
election monitors, was asked by an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to
deliver the warning to Abbas.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in Abbas's dominant Fatah faction,
claimed responsibility for the West Bank ambush.

Veteran Israeli peacemaker Shimon Peres, who is taking his Labour Party into
a new coalition government with Sharon to pursue a planned withdrawal from the
small occupied territory of Gaza, said Israel would do its utmost to facilitate
the ballot.

"It is in our interest as well as the Palestinians'."

The passing of Arafat has raised hopes of ending four years of
Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed and reviving peace negotiations aimed at a
Palestinian state. The United States and Israel accused of fomenting violence,
something he always denied.

But militants have spurned Abbas's calls for a truce, suggesting he will have
an uphill battle to realize his agenda.